As the rest of us watch to see what the Standard & Poor’s credit downgrade is doing to the overall economic picture, pundits do what they do better than most: assign blame.

“The downgrade … was less about economics than politics,” Joe Nocera writes in The New York Times. “S&P was frightened by the same thing that has scared most Americans: the spectacle of an unyielding minority of tea party Republicans ready to push the country into default rather than accept even modest tax increases to help bring down the deficit. ‘The effectiveness, stability and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges,’ wrote S&P in its downgrade report. Who can disagree?”

Though Eugene Robinson considers S&P’s reasoning for the downgrade “largely bogus,” he does identify what he considers “one very good reason”: “Republicans in Congress made a credible threat to force a default on our obligations.”

“Absent the threat of willful default,” the Washington Post columnist writes, “a downgrade would be unjustified and absurd. And history will note that it was House Republicans who issued that threat.”

Even though the downgrade so far hasn’t chased investors away from treasury bills, Joan Walsh still doesn’t consider that “any kind of good news for the economy.”

“It just shows the cluelessness of those who believe the deficit is the nation’s biggest problem, when in fact the problem is the lack of jobs,” the Salon columnist writes.

She brushes aside President Barack Obama’s insistence that the United States remains “a AAA country.”

“We’re a AAA nation when we come together to solve our problems and take steps to reduce economic inequality and spread prosperity, as we did in the New Deal and post-World War II decades. We need to do it again.”

“The real reason for doubt about our future capacity to pay our debts is that one of our two political parties is wedded to the social/democrat agenda that is, even as we speak, bringing Europe down,” the Creators Syndicate columnist writes.

“It is our misfortune that at a moment of heightened economic fragility, we elected a Keynesian liberal who thought of the private sector as a bottomless piggy bank for his redistributionist schemes.”

Patrick Buchanan dismisses attempts to blame the downgrade on tea party Republicans.

“To see how absurd it is …,” the Creators Syndicate columnist writes, “imagine this scenario: Rep. Ron Paul is speaker of the House, Sen. Rand Paul is majority leader, and Rep. Paul Ryan is president of the United States.

“Does anyone doubt this trio would restore the U.S credit rating in a New York minute? Every sacred cow in the federal pasture, from food stamps to foreign aid, would be hanging in the meat locker.”

Though Congress has appointed a bipartisan commission to deal with long-term debt reduction, the Tribune Media Services columnist presses for “outside auditors with no political connections” to be “brought in and empowered to eliminate every government agency that does not produce services essential to strengthening the nation.”

But in the struggle between whether to raise revenue or shrink government, William Saletan decides the downgrade has introduced a new powerbroker.

“It isn’t a party or a movement,” the Slate columnist writes. “It isn’t even American. It’s our creditors. …

“The debate between higher taxes and deep entitlement cuts is over,” he declares. “Our creditors are going to make us do both.”